Your First Trade ================ This walkthrough takes you through recording a trade from start to finish. By the end, you'll have a fully journaled trade with strategy tags, exit details, screenshots, and a self-reflection. FTJ's trade entry follows a **five-step lifecycle**, shown as a visual pipeline at the top of the Trades view: .. image:: /_static/five_steps.png :alt: Trade lifecycle pipeline bar :align: center .. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the trade lifecycle bar. Consider a short GIF scrolling through each step. | Step 0 - Prerequisites ----------------------- Before adding your first trade, make sure you have: 1. **At least one Account** configured. Navigate to **Account** in the sidebar and create one (see :doc:`/features/accounts`). Every trade is tied to an account with a base currency. 2. (Optional) **Strategies defined**. In the :doc:`/features/settings` view you can seed pre-made common strategies like *Trend Following*, *Breakout Trading*, *Mean Reversion* etc. You can use these as-is or create your own under **Strategy** in the sidebar. Step 1 - Create a New Trade ---------------------------- 1. Click **Trades** in the sidebar. 2. Click the |nt_button| button at the top of the trade list. .. |nt_button| image:: /_static/nt_button.png :alt: + New Trade :height: 26px 3. A blank trade form appears in the trades list and the panels to the right are ready to be configured. Step 2 - Entry Details ----------------------- Scroll down (or click **Entry** in the lifecycle bar) to fill in entry information. Fill in the following fields: .. image:: /_static/card_entry.png :alt: Entry details card :align: left :height: 300px .. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Entry card filled in with sample data. .. raw:: html
.. list-table:: :widths: 25 75 :header-rows: 1 * - Field - Description * - **Instrument** - The ticker or symbol you traded (e.g. ``BTCUSD``, ``EURUSD``, ``NG``). * - **Direction** - Click **Long** or **Short** to set the trade direction. * - **Entry Price (Quote)** - The price at which you entered the position. * - **Quantity** - The position size. Use the **Mode** dropdown to switch between *Units* and *Lots*. * - **Session** - The trading session (e.g. NY, Morning, Afternoon). Select from the dropdown. * - **Currency** - The currency the instrument is quoted in (e.g. ``USD - US Dollar``). * - **Account** - Which account this trade belongs to. * - **Entry Date Time** - The date and time you entered the trade. You can also set ms and the chart timeframe. .. note:: If the trade's currency differs from the account's base currency, FTJ will need an exchange rate to convert P&L. See :doc:`/features/exchange-rates`. **Lot Settings** Click the gear icon (⚙) next to the Mode dropdown to configure lot sizes for the current instrument. This lets you switch between displaying quantities as raw units or lots. Step 3 - Exit & P/L --------------------- Click **Exit & P/L** in the lifecycle bar or scroll to the Exit card on the right side. Fill in: .. image:: /_static/card_exit.png :alt: Exit card with P/L details :align: left :height: 300px .. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Entry card filled in with sample data. .. raw:: html
.. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Exit card showing filled-in exit data with computed P/L. .. list-table:: :widths: 25 75 :header-rows: 1 * - Field - Description * - **Exit Date Time** - When you closed the trade. * - **Exit Price (Avg/VWAP)** - The price at which you exited. For scaled exits, this is the volume-weighted average. * - **Stop Loss** - Your planned stop loss level. Used to calculate the Risk/Reward ratio. * - **Take Profit** - Your planned take profit level. * - **R/R Ratio** - Automatically calculated from Entry Price, Stop Loss, and Exit Price. Displayed as a colored badge (green for favorable, red for unfavorable). * - **Gross P/L (Base)** - The raw profit or loss before fees, in the account's base currency. * - **Net P/L (Base)** - P/L after subtracting fees and swap, in the account's base currency. * - **Swap (Base)** - Overnight swap/rollover charges. * - **Fees (Base)** - Commissions and transaction fees. * - **Exit Reason** - Select from your configured exit reasons (e.g. "Hit Take Profit", "Stopped Out", "Manual Exit"). See :doc:`/features/strategies` for managing exit reasons. .. tip:: If your trade was derived from imported executions, the Entry and Exit fields will show a **"Derived from executions"** badge, and the values are automatically calculated from your individual fills. Step 4 - Strategy & Confluences --------------------------------- .. image:: /_static/card_strategies.png :alt: Strategy & Confluences card :align: left :height: 160px .. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Entry card filled in with sample data. .. raw:: html
.. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Strategy & Confluences card showing a strategy selected. **Trading Strategies** - Click **+ Add Strategy** to tag this trade with one or more strategies. - A picker window opens showing all your available strategies. Select one (e.g. "Breakout Trading") and it appears as a colored button on the card. - You can assign multiple strategies to a single trade. **Confluences** - Click **+ Add Confluence** to tag the market conditions or signals that supported your entry. - Confluences are conditions you checked before entering (e.g. "Volume Confirmation", "MACD Bullish Crossover", "Support/Resistance Level"). - Like strategies, you can assign multiple confluences per trade. .. tip:: Tagging strategies and confluences consistently unlocks powerful analytics later. You'll be able to better see which setups are actually profitable over time. Step 5 - Reflect & Save ------------------------- This is where you capture the context behind the trade using the **Images**, **Journal Notes**, and **Self-Reflection** cards. Images ~~~~~~ .. image:: /_static/card_images.png :alt: Images card with chart screenshots :align: left :height: 150px .. raw:: html
.. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Images card showing attached chart screenshots. - Drag and drop chart screenshots onto the Images card, or click the **+** area to browse. - Images are stored directly in your database (no external file dependencies). - Each image can be up to **1920 × 1080 px** and **2 MB** by default (configurable in Settings). - Click any thumbnail to open a full-size preview. - Click the **✕** on a thumbnail to remove it. .. TODO: Consider a short GIF showing drag-and-drop of a chart screenshot. Journal Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. image:: /_static/card_journalnotes.png :alt: Journal Notes card :align: left :height: 160px .. raw:: html
.. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Journal Notes card. Two free-text fields are available: - **Trade Notes** - Write your post-trade analysis. What happened? What did you observe? - **Pre-Trade Plan** - Document what your plan was before entering. Comparing this to what actually happened builds self-awareness over time. Self-Reflection ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. image:: /_static/card_selfreflectionpng.png :alt: Self-Reflection card with emoji ratings :align: left :height: 220px .. raw:: html
.. TODO: Replace with a screenshot of the Self-Reflection card showing the emoji rating scales. Use the **Self-Reflection** card to quickly score how well the trade matched your plan, execution, and overall expectations. Each prompt is rated on a 1-5 scale: 1. **Did I follow my trading plan?** - Rate how closely you stuck to your intended setup, risk, and execution rules. 2. **Did I react well to market conditions?** - Rate how well you adjusted as price action developed. 3. **Positive gut feeling at entry?** - Rate how confident and aligned the entry felt in the moment. 4. **Satisfied with exit timing?** - Rate whether the trade was closed where you intended, or where you now believe it should have been closed. 5. **Overall trade rating** - Give the trade an overall score based on the full outcome and process. Use **Additional Reflection** for anything the scores do not capture, such as what confirmed the setup, where execution felt strong, or what you would do differently next time. Saving the Trade ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once you've filled in all the details, click |save_button| in the bottom-right corner. Your trade is now persisted to the database and will immediately appear in the trade list, the Dashboard, and all analytics. .. |save_button| image:: /_static/button_save.png :alt: Save Changes :height: 26px .. TODO: Replace with a screenshot highlighting the Save Changes button. .. note:: You can navigate between trades using the **← Prev** and **→ Next** buttons at the bottom, or by clicking any trade in the list on the left. Executions (Advanced) --------------------- For traders who work with individual fills (executions), FTJ supports an execution-based workflow. Instead of manually entering entry/exit prices, you can add individual executions (buys and sells) and let FTJ aggregate them into a trade. The **Executions (Fills)** card shows: - **Add** - Manually create a new execution. - **Edit** - Modify a selected execution. - **Reload** - Re-fetch executions from the database. - **Delete** - Remove a selected execution. - **Close Position** - Automatically create a closing execution at the current market data. Each execution row shows the time, side (B = Buy, S = Sell), quantity, price, fee, and order ID. When a trade has linked executions, the Entry and Exit cards show **"Derived from executions"** and the aggregated values (VWAP entry price, total quantity, total fees) are computed automatically. The trade is marked **CLOSED** when the net position reaches zero (total buys = total sells). What's Next? ------------ - Learn about the :doc:`/features/dashboard` to understand your KPIs and charts. - Set up :doc:`/features/strategies` to build a library of your trading setups. - If you trade multiple currencies, configure :doc:`/features/exchange-rates`. - Ready to import history? See :doc:`/features/importing-data`.